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The Gary 
School System 

A Series of Articles By 
W. J. McNALLY, 

Of The Minneapolis Tribune Staff. 



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PubUshed by 
November, 1915. 



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Copyright 1915. 
By The Minneapolis Tribune. 



0)C1.A415751 
N0\1 151915 



The Gary School System. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Gary System Explained. 

A rather tragic distinction has been reserved for the 
word "Garyism" in that an almost universal familiarity 
with its sound has for a long time been unable to dis- 
sipate an almost universal ignorance as to its meaning. 
The word has proved practically unavoidable as an ac- 
quaintance and practically inaccessible as an intimate. 
Kelentless in arresting the attention, it has tantalizingly 
persisted in eluding the understanding. It has achieved 
the paradoxical position of being unknown and yet wide- 
ly known. It has been captured by a national fame, but 
it has refused to surrender to the average comprehension. 
Unexampled publicity has been chiefly informative in 
revealing the pitiable poverty of the current information. 

The peculiar status of the word, therefore, is suf- 
ficient reason for appearing purely elementary in this 
introductory article. 

A school system has been developed at Gary, In- 
diana, which has excited the interest and the wonder of 
the country. 

The man who conceived and developed this system 
is a quiet thinker, named William A. "Wirt. 

A poll of the casual notions associated with "Gary- 
ism" would probably present an encyclopedia of contra- 



4 THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

dictions. Certain persons have a horrified feeling that 
Mr. Wirt houses his children in Utopian places. Others 
have an equally horrified feeling that he is inhuman 
enough to make one building do the work of two. The 
heart-rending spectacle of these meek, inanimate stniC' 
til res of stone ruthlessly condemned to extra labor with- 
out their consent has stirred to indignation many ad- 
vocates of the older and more benevolent system. Some 
are positive that the Gary idea is demoralizing to the 
child in that it means all work and no play. Others are 
positive that it is similarly demoralizing in that it means 
all play and no work. Some express disquietude because 
they believe that religious instruction is incorporated in 
the schools. Others express perturbation because they 
understand that religious instruction is separated from 
the schools. Sheer incuriosity and apathy are no doubt 
responsible for preventing scores more of perfectly 
original and ingenious misconceptions from reaching the 
light of day. 

In point of fact the Gary idea should not be spoken 
of in the singular number at all. The Gary idea in real- 
ity is a sheaf of novel and apparently none too closely 
co-ordinated ideas. Various skeins have been inter- 
woven in order to effect the pattern of Garyism. The 
disentanglement or unravelling of some of the more con- 
spicuous threads might reveal the following specific 
phases : 

Child's Activities Increased. 

1A point which has elicited much comment is Mr. 
Wirt's wholesale wrecking of the rigid grade sys- 
tem. Upon the ruins of the old system he has superim- 
posed or reconstructed a new system infinitely more com- 
prehensive and built on far wider foundations. The Wirt 



THE GAKY SCHOOL SYSTEM 5 

system has increased the area of the child's activities 
and has enlarged the responsibilities of the school. An 
elaborate program of recreation and a catholic scheme 
of vocational work supplement, or encircle, the ordinary 
academic work. The fixed seat of the pupil has been 
abolished. The single teacher of the grade has been ban- 
ished. The pupil visits perhaps half a dozen different 
rooms and studies under perhaps half a dozen different 
teachers in the course of a day. Incidentally the upper 
grades are permitted to take such high school subjects 
as physics, botany, chemistry, French and German. I 
shall deal with this phase of the Gary system at greater 
length in a subsequent paper. 

^ A phase closely allied to the above phase is the 
^ famous economy practiced in running the school 
plant at its full capacity. The schools in Gary are used 
evenings, Saturdays and during the summer months. 
The "Wirt system has so increased the activities of the 
pupil that half the time he is not in the classroom at all. 
A skillful method of rotation has been developed which 
keeps half the pupils in the classrooms while the remain- 
ing half are engaged upon the playgrounds, in the shops 
and in the auditorium. Through this means the capacity 
of the individual building has been practically doubled. 

Take Desired Religion. 

3 A phase little emphasized in Gary but much exploit- 
ed in outside cities is the method of handling re- 
ligious instruction. The various creeds in Gary may em- 
ploy special teachers, who hold special classes during 
school hours within their own precincts. Sufficient flex- 
ibility characterizes the Gary program to permit the 
pupils to take what religious instruction they desire at 
the place and the time which suit their wishes and con- 



6 THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

venience. No credit is given in the schools for religious 
instruction, nor does any connection exist between the 
creeds and the schools. The school simply surrenders the 
child temporarily to the church and then reclaims him 
again. 

4 A phase which has attracted a vast amount of at- 
tention is the extraordinary development of the 
Gary evening classes. These evening classes differ from 
the evening classes in other cities not so much in kind 
as in range, equipment and proportionate attendance. 
The number of courses taught is simply bewildering. The 
equipment for teaching vocational subjects is similarly 
startling. Their phenomenal popularity has become a 
national proverb. Nearly 8,000 were enrolled last year 
and gave rise to the assertion that every third person 
in Gary was attending school. 

Freedom Permitted Children. 

5 Miscellaneous phases which have attracted atten- 
tion here and there are the individual freedom per- 
mitted children, the individual freedom permitted teach- 
ers, the responsibilities thrust upon pupils, the subordina- 
tion of books, the practice of vitalizing dead topics and 
relating them to living problems of the moment, and the 
amazing competence developed by the juvenile craftsmen. 

All these phases will receive separate consideration in 
succeeding papers. 

William "Wirt is the man who converted the Gary sys- 
tem from a dream into a reality. His biography exem- 
plifies the proverb that the world will come to the super- 
ior man if he spends his life in a forest. Mr. Wirt was 
born just outside a little Indiana town called Markle. 
He attended the grade schools at Markle, took his high 
school work at a neighboring town known as Bluffton. 



THE GARY SCHOOIi SYSTEM 7 

and received his college degree from De Pauw univer- 
sity. A principalship of the high school at Redkey fol- 
lowed his graduation from De Pauw and preceded his 
election to the superintendency of schools in Bluffton. 

Entered on Career at Bluffton. 

In Bluffton he may be said to have entered fairly 
upon his career. His work attracted attention from the 
first as notably bold and progressive. He had won a 
reputation among educators long before he had passed 
out of his twenties. He was in line for promotion to 
the superintendency of the schools in such towns as Fort 
Wayne and South Bend when the opportunity of his life 
occurred. 

The Steel Corporation decided to wave its magic wand 
over the sand dunes and call into being a new city. 

Mr. Wirt's work at Bluffton had been of so distin,- 
guished a sort as easily to win for him the election to 
the superintendency of schools in this contemplated 
metropolis. A fortunate facet of his ability consisted in his 
power of impressing other people with the worth of un- 
tried ideas. He was permitted to erect a school system 
in Gary very much as he would have erected it in a 
dream city. Two beautiful buildings, the Emerson and 
Frobel, stand as monuments to his success in obtaining 
the exact laboratories he needed for the realization of 
his ideas. 

System Soon Recognized. 

Mr. Wirt's achievements in Gary did not remain long 
overlooked by the watchful world outside. Mayor Mitch- 
el of New York made a trip through the country which 
brought him into contact with the Gary school system. 
His delight with what he encountered knew no bounds. 



8 THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

He insisted on bringing Mr. Wirt to New York for the 
purpose of Garyizing the schools in the congested dis- 
tricts. New York is now in a state of upheaval as a re- 
sult of the volcanic ideas which Mr. Wirt has introduced. 
The opposition to the Gary system in New York is in- 
credibly bitter and the ultimate results are yet in doubt. 
Mr. Wirt is fully conscious of the fact that in New York 
he is engaged upon the struggle of his life. Success in 
Garyizing the New York school system will in all prob- 
ability mean a revolutionizing of the metropolitan school 
systems the country over. 

Mr. Wirt's other outside experience in Troy, New 
York, was a brilliant triumph. In a certain district of 
Troy it was discovered that two buildings were inade- 
quate for the needs of the children. While the board was 
considering the erection of a new building, one of the 
standing pair burned to the ground. The desperation of 
their straits moved the Troy educators to call upon Mr. 
Wirt. He did not keep them long in suspense. He pro- 
ceeded to action with characteristic energy and dispatch. 
He introduced vocational shops, play-grounds, and audi- 
torium, abolished the single seat, shook up the teaching 
staffs so that general teachers were made specialists, and 
in a short time had a true Gary school installed in Troy, 
The miracle of the whole affair was revealed when it was 
found that the children were now amply housed in one 
school, where formerly they had been inadequately hous- 
ed in two. When with the two buildings they declared 
they needed more room, they now, with one building, saw 
that they had room to spare. 

Some of the dazzled folk in Troy feared that the chil- 
dren would not do as well in their academic work as 
they had formerly. The magical process they regarded 
as much too good to be true. But in the next examina- 



THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 9 

tions the children \von the highest average they had won 
in the history of Troy and stood up among the first 
schools in the state. Mr. Wirt still gives a couple of 
days each month to Troy as he travels back and forth 
from the week's visit -which he monthly makes to New 
York. Considerable publicity has been given the quite 
unimportant fact that he receives $10,000 a year from New 
York and $2,500 a year from Troy for the supervision 
which he exercises in these respective cities. 

The scene of Mr. Wirt's present activities, Gary, is 
one of exceptional interest. Most people are familiar 
with the romantic aspect of its brief history. Ten years 
ago what is now Gary was an endless stretch of sand 
dunes, the favorite haven of Chicago thugs. The Steel 
Corporation, true to its reputation for omnipotence, sum- 
moned its genie, and ordered nothing less than a city. 
And upon this blasted heath a handsome American city 
obediently rose, gridironed with superbly paved streets, 
snd blocked out in squares of beautiful symmetry. 

The city of Gary already enrolls 40,000 inhabitants 
and has every prospect of sustaining a rapid increase. The 
demand from Europe for munitions of war has stimulat- 
ed the steel business greatly. Work is about ready to 
begin on a new $3,000,000 mill which it is expected wiU 
bring 2,000 new families, or 8,000 inhabitants, to Gary, 
The population of Gary is very largely foreign, although 
the native element is by all odds the more conspicuous. 
It is in this extraordinary laboratory that William Wirt 
has been enabled to work out what is perhaps the most 
interesting educational experiment of the decade. 



10 THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

CHAPTER II. 

Child's Development Primarily Sought. 

"I tell you, Mr. Wirt, I've never taken the boy's part 
against the teacher before. I've always stood right by 
the teacher, I have, but now I " 

The sentence concluded in a wail and the tempestuous 
sobbing of a mother flooded the room. 

This was part of a conversation I was forced to over- 
hear in the Emerson school as I entered the administrative 
rooms to keep an appointment with Mr. Wirt, who had 
just arrived in Gary after a visit to New York, and was 
planning to depart almost immediately for San Fr,ancisco. 
Some woman, whose son had evidently been discharged 
from school, was seizing her opportunity to make a per- 
sonal appeal to the famed superintendent. 

The fragment of the woman's tragic drama enacted 
before me had no relevance to my purpose except that it 
was destined to throw an illuminating sidelight upon the 
character of the originator of the Gary system. 

Again Comes Assurance. 

"Always before, Mr. Wirt,, I've taken the teacher's 
part against the boy. Always, Mr. Wirt. I wouldn't 
have you think otherwise for the world. I've never taken 
the boy's part before, but this time — " 

That one idea had achieved an intellectual monopoly 
with the woman and rigidly excluded every other notion. 
She clung to it with that pathetic tenacity which so often 
is discernible in the clutch of an inferior mind to a 
wholly irrelevant thought. Chance had lodged this va- 
grant idea in her head as the vital point, and apparently 
there was no force powerful enough to pry it loose. Any 



THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 11 

attempt to bring- her to the point invariably resulted in 
making her hug the idea more desperately, A torrential 
iteration of the same unvaried sentence became an obses- 
sion with her. 

''I've always taken the teacher's part before, Mr. Wirt, 
always. This is the first time I've ever taken the boy's 
part, it is. I — " 

Primeval Savagery Confessed. 

Under normal provocation I hope I may lay claim to 
a moderate stock of patience. But after twenty-five min- 
utes of this unceasing repetition, I must confess I had so 
far relapsed into primeval savagery that I could cheer- 
fully have sentenced the Avoman to the guillotine. 

What was chiefly significant in this trying encounter 
was the effect that it had upon Mr. Wirt. Several people 
were waiting outside to see him and he was palpably 
pressed for time. But never an ejaculation of impatience 
escaped his lips. Never, a gesture of dismissal, never a 
curt word, never an intimation that he was in the slight- 
est degree busy, never an inflection which might have re- 
vealed that he was crucified with weariness, could I de- 
tect. The most sincere sympathy or the most finished 
hypocrisy — the most profound patience or the most artis- 
tic duplicity — I have ever come in contact with charac- 
terized his attitude throughout. One might have imagined 
that he was fascinated by her inexhaustible assurances 
and reassurances of an utterly pointless truth. But when 
she ultimately rose she appeared happy, although it is 
worth noting that she had not succeeded in achieving her 
purpose. . '. • 

A moment later I had my first clear glimpse of the 
cyclonic thinker whose ideas are threatening to wreck the 
entir.e existing grade school system of America. 



12 THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

Mr. Wirt is squarely built, rather short for a man of 
his bulk, brusque in speech, none too fastidious in dress, 
smooth-shaven, and possessed oddly enough of a rather 
cherubic countenance. An impression of phlegmatism 
or stolidity that I momentarily received was utterly de- 
stroyed by his curiously decisive and ener,getic walk. The 
round, almost youthful, face of the man (he is about 
forty-two years old) at first struck me as containing a 
hint of simplicity and unsophistieation. But a closer 
scruntiny of his keen, intent eyes, and more intimate ac- 
quaintance with the unmistakably firm snap of his mouth 
as he flung out a sentence, soon dissipated that illusion. 
He dispenses with such superfluities as empty cordialities 
and has a talent for what one might call an aggressive 
silence. Heavy shoulders, a chest of ample, even extraor- 
dinary, br.eadth and thickness, an erect carriage and a 
step of emphatic determination give him a commanding 
and forcible presence despite his lack of height. 

Asked to Summarize. 

I asked if he could weld together the various ideas 
which constitute "Garyism" and summarize them in a 
single synthesis. 

He hesitated for an instant and then said ''Yes," with 
that striking abruptness which characterizes his actions. 
Simultaneously he dropped into his chair, and before I 
had become fairly ad.justed to the swift transition, he had 
flung himself into his topic and was talking with gr.eat 
rapidity and animation. 

"There's one dominant idea which has governed every 
phase of the Gary system. From beginning to end the 
development of the child has been my primary concern. 
That's the hub from which all the spokes radiate. Con- 



THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 13 

siderations of economy have always been secondary and 
completely in the background. I've never had any desire 
to see how cheaply a school might be run. I've never 
looked at education purely as a cold-blooded business 
pr.oposition. 

Home's Power Lost. 

"The gradual concentration of our population in large 
cities has made certain changes in our educational system 
inevitable. The home to a large degree has lost its power 
to provide for the proper development of the child. It 
can't give him the proper facilities either for work or 
play. The streets then may capture and degrade him. 
Now all that the home has given up I propose the school 
take over. The deficiency of the home must be met by 
the school. 

"Would I invade or compete with the home? Not at 
all. I would co-operate with it, rather. Any help I get 
from the home I'm preciously glad and grateful to get. 
But I'm not for one instant going to place the burden of 
responsibility on the home. If the home contributes 
something, well and good; if it contributes nothing, all 
right, too; in any event the essential responsibility re- 
mains with the school. 

Wants Full Supervision. 

"Now, as a representative of the state, I feel it my 
duty to provide for the child the fullest, largest, freest 
development possible. I want to supervise his play and 
work, as well as his study. I want to meet the street and 
the amusement halls and the cheap theaters and beat 
them out through sheer, force or superior interest. Let's 
suppose that we attempt to add play and work to an ordi- 
nary school system and watch what would happen. Let's 



14 THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

suppose that we add training in nature study, training in 
vocational work, training in music, training in gymastic 
work. 

"First of all we stumble against the obstacle "of the 
human limitations of the individual teacher. I've never 
believed that teacher who was indifferent to nature could 
teach nature study. I've never believed that a teacher, 
who was tone-deaf could teach music. Nor have I imag- 
ined that a teacher who knows nothing about play could 
supervise it from a window or that a teacher only super- 
ficially familiar M'ith things mechanical could teach me- 
chanical arts and sciences. 

Expense Proves Obstacle. 

"What shall Ave do to overcome the obstacle discov- 
ered here % Shall we add to our corps of teachers a gr,oup 
of specialists who will teach these special subjects a few 
minutes each day? A number of objections pop up at 
once. In the first place of course the expense of the un- 
dertaking will burn us out of house and home. In the 
second place, no teacher can satisfactorily handle an en- 
tire school for only a few minutes each day. The class is 
too la: ge and the time too short. And in the third place, 
we can 't forget the appalling waste that we have about us. 
Expensive playgrounds ar.e on our hands used for only a 
short time each day — an orthodox group of teachers is 
wholly idle while the special group is teaching — class- 
rooms are wholly idle while the shops and laboratories 
are in operation — shops and laboratories are wholly idle 
while the classrooms are filled up — why, the idea is sim- 
ply economic madness." 

Restraint characterizes the man as he talks, but the 
tightening of his fist and the tensity of his gaze as he 
leaned farther and farther forward revealed the depth and 



THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 15 

earnestness of his feeling on tlie topic. A conviction that 
I was enconntering a man of extraordinary power began 
to grow on me. A man whom at the outset I had regarded 
as phlegmatic, taciturn and impassive now^ was electrified, 
vivified and surcharged with a dynamic force hitherto 
not to be noted. 

"Now to give the child the development I wanted, 
some plan had to be devised to circumvent these obsta- 
cles. Here is where we arrive at what you call the Gary 
system. The method I adopted knocking out the wliole 
system may be summed up pretty well as the abolition of 
the fixed seat. -^ 

Rotation System Used. 

"The abolition of the fixed seat of the pupil is the kej- 
stone of the Gary arch. Thr.ough this we are permitted 
to install the rotation system. Through this we are per- 
mitted to exchange miscellaneous teachers for specialists. 
Through this we are permitted practically to double the 
capacity of our building so that the economics are effect- 
ed which allow us to install magnificent shops and play- 
grounds. Experts in shop under our new system have 
small classes every hour in the day. Experts in music al- 
so have small classes every hour of the day. Every room 
in the building may be worked up to its full capacity all 
of the time. No special teacher need be hired to give only 
a part of her time. Instead of being strait-jacketed in a 
single seat and studying under the same teacher from 
morning till night, the child progresses from specialist to 
specialist, getting a vocational education as well as an 
academic education and physical drill as well as mental 
drill." 

He paused long enough to smile a curious, abstract 
smile which did not apparently include any human being 



16 THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

within its embr,aee. Plis smile seemed to be an affectionate 
greeting, or salute, thrown at his passing beliefs as his 
conversation paraded them before him. One might have 
supposed that his infectious interest had endowed these 
convictions with a living presence and a palpable shape. 
It is worth noting that his ears have a trick of rising when 
he smiles. 

Shows Plan's Economy. 

"The abolition of the fixed seat is a point that some 
people talk a great deal about. Criticism on this point 
loses sight of a fundamental economic principle. A multi- 
ple use of the unit of service is one of the imperative laws 
of social progress. What would happen if the patron 
reserved his seat in the theater not for the single night 
but for the entire year? What would happen if the hotel 
guest reserved his room not for his immediate stay, but 
for the entire year? Or what would happen if the trav- 
eler reserved his berth on the railr.oad train not for his 
actual trip, but for the entire year? Both society and 
the individual would lose incalculably. The individual 
would have to give vastly more and take vastly less for 
the privilege of excluding others from using something 
he was not using himself. The whole principle is absurd. 
Yet that's the principle, silly as it is, which has been gov- 
erning school management, and that's what we've revolt- 
ed fr,om in Gary. The child has lost his fixed seat, it's 
true, but look what he's been given in exchange." 

"You've introduced a paradoxical formula whereby 
what appears as a nominal loss is actually an inestimable 
gain?" 

"T>iat's the idea exactly." 

I asked him if he thought the Gary system might be 
introduced effectively in other cities. 



THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 17 

"Certainly it might if used intelligently. I can answer 
for the system, but I can't answer for the handling of it. 
Any system in which the human equation enters may be 
bungled. But the fact that stupid execution may spoil 
a good plan is no argument against the plan's intrinsic 
worth." 

"What about your method of handling r.eligious in- 
struction? How did that arise?" I interjected. 

"Its origin would take us clear back, to the historic 
separation of church and state. You must know most of 
the religious instruction of this country is being done by 
school teachers outside of school hours. Now I believe 
that's not fair to the state. The teacher is paid by the 
state and a diffusion of her energies naturally means a 
loss to the state. I have made it policy not to per.mit my 
teachers to give religious instruction outside. 

"Well, that stand upset the old condition of affairs 
and created the present system. The churches were left 
without teachers and had to hire their own. I'm alto- 
gether willing to give them the children so long as they 
provide the instruction. They were displeased with the 
arrangements at first, but the huge superiority of the in- 
struction the teachers now give has more than reconciled 
them to the change. I believe in church and I go to 
church, but I've never had any fondness for the notion 
that the churches should act as parasites on the schools." 

A query as to the prospects of his election to the su- 
perintendency of the Chicago schools brought forth an 
emphatic answer that he would not consider, it. "No pos- 
sibility of getting anything done under the present sys- 
tem there," he said. "The superintendent is only elected 
for a year and the old board kept on him. Everything he 
tried to do could be blocked. 



18 THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

"I haven't the remotest idea what inspired your super- 
intendent, Spaulding, to jump into print the way he did," 
he turned to the subject abr.uptly, swinging about in his 
chair and dropping his fist heavily on his desk. " Spaul- 
ding 's a good fellow. 1 regret his attack and fail alto- 
gether to understand it." 

Superintendent Spaulding of Minneapolis had recently 
given out a statement in which he had said it would cost 
$800,000 to "Garjnze" the Minneapolis schools. Mr. Wirt 
referred to that. 

"I haven't read the article myself," he went on, but 
I've been told what it contains. Of course, it's unjust. 
Spaulding 's never been down here, so far as I know. I 
Avish he would give us a fair investigation before con- 
demning us in print." 

It was now after lunch time and the entire office staff 
had long since left the building. On my going Mr. Wirt 
immediately plunged back into his work. An hour later, 
when I returned, he was still absorbed, the one solitary 
figure in the two great administrative rooms of the Emer- 
son building. I have no final knowledge on the point, 
but I am convinced that a lunch did not intrude upon 
his work that day. 



CHAPTER III. 

Children Treated As Grown-ups. 

; "Oh, look at the lazy loafer!" 

"The son-of-a-gun's just a darn bum! He's got no 
business goin' to school at all!" 

A. lone lad perhaps eight years old was surrounded 
by a ring of shouting boys and made the target of their 
merciless scorn. 



THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 19 

Charlie, the wretched youth in the center, had been 
convicted of idling in the workshop. 

For a week's work in the shop of a Gary school he 
had received a check which amounted only to fifty cents. 
The depth of his disgrace may be understood when it is 
explained that these diminutive "laborers" were suppos- 
ed to receive three dollars a Aveek for their services. 

Charlie's ludicrously small check had excited the im- 
mediate contempt of his classmates. 

"Lazy loafer, you! Only fifty cents! Ha, look at our 
checks ! ' ' 

Flaunt Checks in Face. 

And the vainglorious little wretches, Avhose etficiency 
had been attested beyond dispute, flaunted their munifi- 
cent checks in the face of the delinquent. 

"Why don't you work when you're in shop, eh?'' 

"You oughta go off and die instead of goin' to school, 
you ought!" 

Particular point was given the situation when it is 
added that the foreman, who had so ruthlessly "docJjed" 
poor Charlie for his inefficiency was aged but eleven. The 
lynx-eyed juvenile "boss" had observed that Charlie was 
taking life rather too easily, and, with that appalling 
conscientiousness which characterizes extreme youth, had 
cut oft* five-sixths of his ordinary pay. And the culprit's 
punishment was still by no means complete. His very 
soul must have seared by the disgust of his comrades. He 
had promptly been condemned to a cruel but certainly 
instructive social ostracism. 

The episode is illuminating in that it reveals the 
peculiar grasp possessed by Mr. Wirt on the psychology 
of childhood. 

These cheeks were not checks at all in the ordinary 



20 THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

sense of the M'ord but merely clever substitutes for the 
"marks'' of the conventional grade system. The checks 
were made out in the school currency and w^ere to be 
deposited in the school bank. 

No trait is more pronounced in the small boy than 
his inordinate capacity for imitation. His passion for 
aping men in particular is overwhelming. Mr. Wirt has 
skillfully brought the best out of the boy by installing 
a system which permits him to imagine himself 
a man. The boys in the shop already alluded 
to were so infatuated with their importance as real 
"laborers" that they were tricked into a precocious as- 
sumption of maturity. "Loafing" under the conventional 
school system strikes the juvenile imagination as a dash- 
ing and piquant mode of spending time. But round the 
Jefferson shop in G^vy it commanded universal con- 
tempt. The plight of the solitary "loafer" was so dis- 
tressing as to be pitiable. 

Genuine Workshop Reproduction. 

The visitor who enters a workshop in a Gary school 
finds the details of a genuine workshop reproduced with 
extraordinary fidelity. Everyw^here the youths are work- 
ing busily and with what seems a feverish interest. 

What struck me at the outset about this hive of in- 
dustry was the apparent superfluity of the teacher, A 
lad of eleven was acting as "foreman" and appeared to 
be the autocrat of the room. His orders were brusque 
and invariably won instant obedience. 

In the far corner of the room a storeroom was fitted 
up behind a steel cage. A lad of eight who bore the 
official title of storeroom keeper was perched upon a 
high stool. The humble worker had to approach this 
lordly personage- with a written slip of paper which 



THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 21 

contained a formal statement of his demands. The slip 
Avas then placed on file and the stipnlated tools were 
given out. 

One unfortunate youth who had scrawled his de- 
mands too hastily was subjected to a stinging rebuff 
while I was looking on. 

' ' I can 't read the writin ', ' ' remarked the finical store- 
keeper. "It's rotten." 

Hands Back Slip With Wave. 

And he arrogantly handed back the applicant his slip 
and waved him away. 

''It says 'bucksaw,' " urged the repudiated one im- 
ploringly. "Gosh, can't you read?" 

"Not that bum stuff," the inexorable official replied. 
"AVrite it over." 

The disgruntled workman proceeded to rewrite the 
word laboriously only to come to grief upon its spelling. 
The fastidious custodian of the storeroom abused him 
roundly for his delinquencies in this respect, but finally 
relented and passed him the desired bucksaw. 

No conscious discipline was maintained in the shop 
nor was there any apparent need of it. The diminutive 
workmen were so wholly consumed with their own im- 
portance as to regard it beneath their dignity to "cut 
up." They swaggered about their various tasks as 
though the destiny of the nation hung upon their manner 
of disposing of them. 

I later learned that the episodes observed in this room 
illustrated certain principles of "Garyism" which were 
to be encountered in every phase of the work. The large 
delegation of responsibility to the juvenile official, as 
cxemplied in the almost autocratic power of the "fore- 
man," was a phenomenon which I noted again and again. 



22 THE GAUY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

Whenever it is practicable at all, the pupils may be seen 
governing themselves. 

Strict Discipline Abandoned. 

Nothing is more amusing in the Gary system than the 
sight of these infantile corporals and captains and 
colonels ordering their helots about and exacting a start- 
ling obedience. The insistence of the storeroom keeper 
upon good writing and good spelling is an illustration of 
another tenet in the Gary creed. In one class it is cus- 
tomary to make the pupils use the knowledge they have 
gained in a different class. Even information is not al- 
lowed to lie idle in Gary or to remain sealed up in a 
given class, but is kept rotating by devices invented for 
the purpose of insuring its circulation. A third point 
revealed by the conduct of the children in the shop is the 
relative abandonment of ordinary measures of strict dis- 
cipline. 

A phase of this shop work which surprised me and 
interested me is the hold it has won upon the little girls. 
Probably no town in the country has a more valid claim 
to modernity than Gary and it is therefore only fitting 
that it should be found well abreast of the feministic 
wave. The contention is urged that a changing ciyiliza- 
tion has made a knowledge of mechanical matters a vital 
part of feminine education. Tiny girls of eight, nine and 
ten may be seen working with saws and hammers with the 
same exuberant energy that characterizes the boys. They 
show an insatiable inquisitiveness about engines and dy- 
namos and electricity. They develop amazing competence 
in crafts that were supposed to be a masculine monopoly. 
Indeed an instructor in the Jefferson school told me 
that they actually excelled the boys. A larger supply 
of patience and a finer artistic conscience enabled them to 



THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 23 

get results beyoud the reach of their too impetuous 
brothers. 

Restraint Is Characteristic. 

Another interesting point of psychology was given 
me by Mr. Swartz who declared that only the little girls 
took kindly to this shop work. The girls that had arriv- 
ed at the high school age were indignant at the thought 
of soiling their hands and presenting an aesthetically 
dubious appearance. But these miniature Amazon of the 
grades, ^Aho had not yet grown sufficiently sophisticated 
to accept a picturesque impotence as the loftiest ideal of 
f .'minity, threw themselves into the work with an abandon 
and a competence that were a revelation to the skeptics. 
A walk through the shops of either the Emerson or 
the Froebel building is an unforgettable experience. Com- 
modious halls open into spacious laboratories, foundries 
and printing establishments excellently ventilated and ex- 
traordinarily well equipped. 

In one shop I was forced to stare wonderingly at a 
group of youngsters repairing an automobile. In another 
room I found a number of pupils repairing their own 
shoes. In a third I found several pupils making vases 
out of clay. In a fourth I ran across a boy who was 
nmking a picture frame for his mother. In a fifth I no- 
ticed a physics class giving a practical demonstration of 
their knowledge in physics by moving the physics labora- 
tory from the second floor to the first. 

Youth Is Expert Printer. 

While passing the print-shop I saw a handsome little 
black-eyed lad of 9 or 10 running a printingr press with 
what struck my untutored eye as a precocious expert- 
ness. He would stop to oil it with an almost paternal 



24 THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

affection. He seemed to take an exceptional zest in his 
Avork. I was later told that outside of the shops he was 
the wickedest little "cut-up" in school. 

The pupils do a vast deal of the work required for 
the maintenance of schools. They do all the printing of 
programs, school statistics, catalogs, announcements of 
courses and pamphlets which the schools issue in the 
course of a year. They help greatly in preparing the 
motion pictures used in the auditorium. They are used 
constantly as teachers' assistants and given credit for 
this work. They even aid somewhat in the bookkeeping 
of the schools. They take charge of the school supplies 
and learn to keep their inventories correctly. Every 
conceivable phase of jDractical business training at the 
disposal of the schools is thrust upon them. I even dis- 
covered a retail store in one of the buildings which the 
l)upils were sui:)posed to run at a profit. 

Feminine Efficiency Not Overlooked. 

That eft'iciency in the purely feminine accomplish- 
ments is not overlooked is proved by the remarkable sew- 
ing and cooking done by the girls. Cafeterias are to be 
found in botli the Emerson and Froebel schools which are 
run by the pupils. Excellent lunches are prepared for 
ridiculously small sums. I took lunch in each of the 
buildings and found it impossible to complain of any- 
thing except the unconscionably tiny bill. I had a feel- 
ing of positive shame when I discovered the amount I 
v, as expected to pay. 

It is apparently Mr. "Wirt's belief that the capacity of 
the child has been greatly underestimated. Certainly the 
startling competence developed at Gary would go far to 
prove that contention. These children are clearly not 
super-children or even unusual children, although they 



THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 25 

are able to do unusual things. It is a pleasure to observe 
tliat they are by no means exemplary in their conduct. 
They growl and snarl at each other with that abnormal 
superfluity of animalism which in children is the best 
possible assurance of a normal rationality. Anything 
more despicable in a child than uniformly admirable 
conduct, or anything more alarming than the absence of 
all alarming symptoms, I can not readily imagine. 

Given Time to Choose Specialty. 

It is not the intention of the Gary system to develop 
specialists in vocational work. The intention is rather 
to give a full and varied program of vocational work 
which in the end will enable the pupil to make a wise 
decision as to what nature has best fitted him for. Mr. 
Wirt is firmly opposed to the idea of premature speciali- 
zation. The inalienable right of the youngster to end- 
less experimentation is jealously guarded at Gary. Prac 
tice in running all the keys of failure represents the Gary 
idea of achieving the technique of success. 

The Gary system has the fearlessness and the faith 
to treat the boys and girls as men and w^omen. Its trust 
is vindicated in the response it wins. That the superb 
workshops of the Gary schools do a great wor.k in de- 
veloping unimagined potentialities in the child — that 
they emancipate him from the reign of silly toys and 
baubles wdiich keep him enslaved to infancy — that they 
challenge the best that is in him, tear him away from 
the artificial and interest him in the real — that they 
encourage greater adaptability, greater efficiency, and 
provide a short-cut to maturity— I find that a week's 
stay in Gary has made it very difficult for me to doubt. 



26 THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 



CHAPTER IV. 

Physical Side of Gary Training-. 

"You're out, Ethel!" 

A fleet-footed, golden-haired girl of perhaps fourteen 
had just hit a stinging grounder in the direction of short- 
stop. The opposing pitcher, an extraordinarily graceful 
maiden dressed in a "middle" blouse, had dived after 
it and in sporting parlance had "speared" it with one 
hand. A swift recovery of her balance which revealed 
an astonishing suppleness of figure had been followed by 
a perfect throw to first. The decision was close and I am 
inclined to believe that the runner was out. The runner 
herself nevertheless had spirited convictions to the con- 
trary. 

"Oh, out your grandmother!" she retorted with a 
blustering air, and seated herself on the bag in a deter- 
mined manner. "Come off your perch!" 

And she wound her arms about her ankles with a 
dogged firmness which revealed an intention never to 
yield. 

"Of course you're out," pitcher iterated impatiently, 
"out by a mile. Hurry up and get off the diamond." 

"I'm not out!" 

"You are!" 

Scene First Encountered. 

This scene was what I encountered one fresh October 
morning as I arrived on the Emerson playgrounds for 
my first view of the Enierson school. Tlie situation of 
this building on the extreme edge of Gary permits an 
unlimited prospect of the bleached and pitilessly flat 
Indiana landscape for miles about. A malicious sun of 



THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 27 

unexampled opulence seemed bent on humbling the pride 
of the country forever by riding over the squalid waste 
in full and resplendent panoply. It mocked the terrible 
poverty of that endless desert by a wanton parade of its 
ordinarily obscured splendors and extinguished the last 
trace of dignity which the invaded heath might have 
possessed by relentlessly grinding it beneath its burning 
heel of gold. 

I had never before known the experience of witness- 
ing a purely feminine baseball game. Nine girls were 
lined up on a side and playing with all the vigor of pro- 
fessionals. I fancy that they were high school 
sophomores or juniors. The skill they displayed in some 
instances was amazing. Their play was not, of course, 
up to the standard of boys their own age, but it was a 
remarkably high standard for girls of any age to attain. 
The ball they used was much larger and softer than the 
regulation ball. 

Knew Diamond Slang. 

Their knowledge of baseball idiom seemed fully as 
extensive and as accurate as that of the most sophisticat- 
ed "fan." The scraps of dialogue wliich I gathered 
struck me as unusually interesting. 

"Oh, put 'em over the platter, Marian!" 

"There, that was a strike! "What are you looking for, 
anyway t ' ' 

"Strike, that? Huh, two inches the other side of the 
plate and way over my head ! Just give me a good one 
once and watch me hit her out!" 

A certain refinement in their little billingsgate and a 
certain softening of the fierceness which characteries the 
playing of boys were practically the only modifications 
which their sex had wrought in the game. It was no- 



28 THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

liceable that they did not wrangle with quite the primeval 
ferocity which is discernible in the Avranglings of boys. 
They forgot their grievances more readily. They did not 
manifest such scorching bitterness in dispute. They show- 
ed a philosophy in losing and above all a tolerance of 
bad decisions and imagined "raw deals" which I never 
knew boys to display. Their abuse of each other was 
marked by a relative urbanity. 

Winning Secondary. 

They seemed on the Avhole to be more interested in 
playing than in winning, whereas boys are almost in- 
variably more interested in winning than in playing. The 
mighty joy which they were unmistakably taking from 
the game, and the dexterity, the grace, and the hardi- 
hood they were developing, constituted a scathing indict- 
ment of that convention which in the past has excluded 
girls from this most fascinating of youthful sports. 

The playgrounds of either the Emerson or the Froebel 
buildings' — more particularly the Froebel — cannot fail to 
excite the wonder and the admiration of the visitor. The 
first point which commends itself to the gaze is their 
conspicuous amplitude. My impression may be incorvo(,'t 
but I should certainly say that grounds of far great n* 
vastness surround the Froebel school than are included 
within Northr.op field or the Harvard stadium. 

All Get (Chance. 

The value of sheer size may not at first seem manifest. 
But anyone who recalls the fate of the grade scliool 
children on grounds of conventional niggardliness will 
understand its significance. The school "team" monop- 
olizes the school grounds. Ordinary children w^ho have 
no claim to the grounds except a desire to play are ruth- 



THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 29 

lessly swept away to make way for the hallowed .;ad 
deified members of the athletic club. Of course it would 
be iueonceivable that mere mortals should enjoy the 
same privileges on the grounds as the august Olympians 
enrolled on the "team." Usually the crying need of 
physical development in a child is the one qualification 
AA'hich disqualifies him from undergoing any develop- 
ment. The children ^^ ho need the grounds least use them 
practically all the time, while the children who nefid 
them most use them practically none of the time. Physi- 
cal inferiority is sternly sentenced to grow more and 
more inferior while the only true eligibility to the grounds 
has a fatal certainty of stigmatizing its possessor as in- 
eligible. What should serve the child as a passport to 
play simply effects an automatic cancellation of his ri.^ht 
He forfeits his chance through the very excellence of his 
claim. 

Health Is Watchword. 

The Gary system works havoc with this haphazard 
and unjust distribution of the groimds. Every child i& 
insured his right to a proper physical development. Mag- 
nificent gymnasiums and swimming pools have been con- 
structed to watch over him in winter as well as in v.mw- 
mer. Expert instruction has, been engaged to super /ise 
his activities. The almost fanatical zeal with which Mr. 
"Wirt looks out for the health of the child is the best pos- 
sible proof of his essential balance and sanity. It is 
rather significant that in the Emerson building the fir^t 
rcom one stumbles upon harbors the school physiciaji. 
The children who particularly profit by the Gary system 
are the girls who normally w^ould regard it as unladylike 
to exercise and the boys who are so situated as to be 
denied adequate playgrounds. It would be superfluous 
to add that these include the majority of both sexes. 



30 THE GARY SCPIOOL SYSTEM 

I do not find that the academic work done iinder the 
Gary system differs in any fundamental respect from the 
academic work done under the conventional system. Dif- 
ferences in detail of course are to be noted in abundance. 
It is centainly striking to observe little children progress- 
ing from a special teacher in mathematics to a special 
teacher in drawing instead of taking both subjects from 
the same teacher. This to an outsider would appear to 
work for better instruction. The principle that the expert 
is superior to the dilettante has never provoked a vast 
deal of dispute. 

Apropos of this topic it is intesting to note what the 
children answered when asked why they preferred the 
Gary system to the orthodox system. Practically with- 
out exception they put themselves on record in favor of 
the change of teachers. The candid answer of one juve- 
nile analyst was especially illuminating. 

Grouch Not Continuous, ' 

"If a teacher gets miffed at j^ou the first thing in the 
morning she can't keep soaking it to you all day. The 
next teaclier you draAv is pretty sure not to have a 
grouch." 

I was struck again and again by the emphasis laid 
upon modernity in the Gary schools. Mr. Wirt has ap- 
parently no antipathy towards fitting his children for 
the Twentieth century. The old-fashioned school, which 
enthroned antiquity and looked with scorn upon moderni- 
ty, would stand agape at the heresy of Gary. I noticed 
a war map of jMexico on the wall in the corridor. I sup- 
posed of course that it could be no nearer our own time 
than the age of Pizarro and the Aztecs. The shock I felt 
when I made out the names of Carranza and Villa and 
Zapata I leave to the reader to imagine. The map show- 



THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 31 

ed minutely the present distribution of the warring forces 
in Mexico. A little study of it enabled me to emerge with 
an incomparably better understanding of the position of 
Carranza than I had ever possessed before. Maps of the 
Panama canal and of Belgium also interested me greatly. 

Present Is Welcomed. 

The present in most prim schools is regarded as a 
rather indecorous period whose dubious status and per- 
haps too vivid behavior put it utterly beyond the pale 
of polite historj^ These conscientious custodians of edu- 
cation proceed to snub it and ignore it with the severity 
which its ill-bred obtrusiveness properly merits. The less 
said about a period of such questionable antecedents the 
better. But shameless Gary refuses to enter into this 
patrician disdain of the present. It welcomes the de- 
spised waif to its schools with open arms. It has the 
effrontery to address the horrified past in some such met- 
aphorical fashion as this : 

"Past, cease this attitude of snivelling hypocrisy to- 
wards the present, at least while visiting me. Never mind 
apologizing for the present as a remote and insignificant 
relation that you would like to disown. Your only claim 
to distinction that I will recognize is your close relation 
to the present. The present to me is a hundred times 
more important than you. The fact that a study of you 
throws some light on the present is my sole reason for 
bothering with you at all. Intrinsically I regard you as 
decidedly unimportant. Accustom yourself at once to 
your properly subordinate position and learn to genuflect 
before the present during your sojourn here." 

"What is known as the auditorium comprises another 
interesting phase of the Gary program. Geography and 
history are vitalized and energized through the stimulat- 



32 THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

ing instrumentality of motion pictures. The children 
themselves make speeches and explain the significance of 
what is shown on the screen. They dramatize the past 
with their own little playlets. 

I witnessed a dramatization of the Christopher Colum- 
bus story, which brought back the details of the voyage 
Mn.th rare vividness. The juvenile actors all wore cos- 
tumes, and rather elaborate costumes — though I later 
learned that these almost criminally competent and 
versatile youngsters had made them themselves at a cost 
of two cents apiece. And during the same hour I was 
the spectator of a second dramatization of the three com- 
promises of our constitution. Messrs. Madison, Gerry 
and Carroll appeared on the stage impressively adorned 
Mdth wigs and contributed solemn remarks in high, so- 
prano voices. 

A good character touch of Garyism was brought to 
my attention when I learned that the audience was under 
no obligation to keep quiet. The actors were informed 
that they must interest the audience by sheer force of 
histrionic power. The desire to escape the humiliation of 
giving a performance before a crowd of inattentive and 
conversing comrades naturally put the youthful thespians 
on their mettle. The pupils themselves therefore were 
forced to interest themselves so deeply in the past they 
were depicting as to be able to communicate an interest 
in it. They were cleverly seduced into practicing the 
ancient maxim that the best way of learning is by teach- 
ing. 



THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 33 



CHAPTER V. 

The Testimony of a Teacher. 

"Most certainly I Avould rather teach under the Gary 
system than under any other." 

This was the answer which Miss Elsa Ueland un- 
hesitatingly returned me in response to a query concern- 
ing her opinion of Garyism. 

The words she used certainly were not to be described 
as either feeble or indirect. But an intensity of feeling 
utterly beyond the power of print to transmit or repro- 
duce charged her sentence with an arresting quality 
which I shall not attempt to communicate. Garyism to 
Miss Ueland was not an abstract name for an educational 
system. It represented a religion to which she had dedi- 
cated her,self as a votary. Though Miss Ueland, who has 
a well developed sense of humor, and who takes herself 
with anything but fear inspiring seriousness, w^ould 
doubtless have laughed at the extravagance of my figure, 
I nevertheless could feel in her attitude a peculiar rever- 
ence towards Garyism which w^ould have made a flippant 
remark on the topic seem profane. 

Miss Ueland is the daughter of Judge and Mrs. An- 
dreas Ueland of Minneapolis and is a former student of 
the university. A short experience in settlement and 
educational work in New York aroused her interest in 
the Gary system. The desire to gain authoritative infor- 
mation upon the subject prompted her to go to Gary and 
accept a position as teacher in Emerson school. 

Response Eloquent. 

The facilities of observation which she enjoys there 
are of course the very best conceivable. For that reason 



34 THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

1 was particularly anxious to learn her verdict regard- 
ing the system. Nor did she keep me long in suspense. 
The light that flashed up in her eyes at the mention of 
"Garyism" afforded a comment which, for sheer elo- 
quence, the most finished phrase would have been unable 
to rival. 

"I'll tell you why it is that I would prefer teaching 
under Gary system," she said. "It's first of all because I 
find in the child a richer deposit of experience than I can 
find elsewhere. I notice this distinctly in my auditorium 
work. You know I'm a rebel from the tiresome conven- 
tion which exalts mere technique in the art of public 
speaking. Before the pupil can talk well he must have 
something to talk about. And it's in providing him with 
something to talk about that the Gary system is peculiarly 
generous. 

Trained to Talk. 

"In the schools here he has a wonderful background 
of experience. He's been trained to observe, he's been 
in the shops, he's asked questions, he's been taught how 
to relate what he learns in school with the details of his 
daily existence, he's arrived very early at the point 
v/here he uses school as an interpreter of the little rid- 
dles of his life. These tiny tads get up in auditorium 
with a subline lack of self-consciousness and narrate 
phases of their experience that are remarkably interest- 
ing. Of course it's not alone in auditorium that I'm 
struck by the relative richness of the youngster's experi- 
ence. I notice it in all my classes. 

"Then there's another phase of the Gary work that 
has a decided interest for me. You know that I'm an 
utterly irredeemable feminist anyway and so naturally 
I can't help looking at the Gary system from the feminis- 



THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 35 

tie point of view. The provision made here for the de- 
velopment, the natural development of the girl is to me 
a constant source of delight. 

Development Illustrated. 

''Did you see those high school girls playing baseball 
on the diamond? And did you notice those little girls 
down in the shops using saws like experts and driving 
nails straight? Well, that's what I mean by a provision 
for the natural development of the child. 

"Really, you know, I sympathize with the small boy's 
proverbial contempt for the average little girl. "What 
on earth she is good for after convention has ironed all 
the humanity out of her I can't see any more than he. 
She is predestined to parasitism by a systematic train- 
ing which has for its goal a versatile uselessness. Worth- 
lessness is supposed to be her certificate of worth. She 
undergoes such a perverted course of instruction that 
she feels she would convict herself of unnaturalness if 
she acted naturally. The small boy has a contempt for 
her which altogether is to his credit. If there's one thing 
his primitive mind cannot be made to respect it's help- 
lessness. He knows that the little girl can't do anything. 
She can't drive a nail straight to save her life. The way 
she throws a ball is enough to make him weep. She can't 
swim or ride or excel in any of the arts that he regards 
as supremely important. No wonder that he looks upon 
her with a disgust he doesn't bother to conceal, or that 
the most horrible epithet he can conceive of is 'girl-baby.' 

Gains Boy's Respect. 

"Now this is exactly the type of girl that the Gary 
system aims not to develop. Here the little girl learns 
to swim, to use the hammer and the saw, to play ball, 



36 THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

to handle machinery even. She develops surprisingly 
proficiency in things which the small boy respects. She 
sometimes beats his supercilious little lordship at his own 
games. The result is that his ojDinion of her promptly 
undergoes a profound change. 

"But the main point about the Gary system is its re- 
fusal to stifle the girl's physical development out of 
deference to convention. You know a girl is sentenced 
by nature to feel human impulses very much like a boy's. 
She is not taught here that she should be ashamed of 
them. She gratifies her love for running and jumping 
and all kinds of physical activity without a sense of 
guilt. As a consequence she grows strong and hardy, be- 
comes efficient and accomplished, is able to bear great 
strains, has a speaking acquaintance with the word 
robustness, and best of all is permitted a joyous, 
spontaneous childhood free from the tyranny of false 
notions of femininity. I tell you the Gary system is 
superb for the development of the girl. 

Trio Adopt Child. 

"There's still a third phase of the Gary system 
which I have found brought home forcibly to me. You 
know I'm acting at present in the role of a mother. A 
trio of us teachers have adopted a child and we're un- 
dergoing the tribulations of bringing it up. 

"But tribulations are precisely what the Gary system 
has been kind enough to spare us. You can't imagine 
what a relief it is to turn the child over to the school at 
8 o'clock in the morning and know that he will be beau- 
tifully taken care of until 5 in the afternoon. Even on 
Saturdays the school takes him in tow. All danger of 
street influences are eliminated. All the worry that we 
should naturally feel about where he is spending his 



THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 37 

time is cut out. What such a conviction of security 
would mean to the majority of parents, I don't need to 
explain. 

"By the way," she abruptly turned the subject, "how 
is the Dunwoody institute progressing in Minneapolis? 
I am watching its career with much interest. You know 
Minneapolis likes to regard itself as the most progressive 
city in the world. And it is splendidly progressive, of 
course, though sometimes I think it might progress some- 
what faster if it were a wee bit more critical and a wee 
bit less complacent. Now the Dunwoody institute I thinl/ 
justifies a little critical examination. 

Bars Premature Specialization. 

"I may be wrong, but my observation inclines me to 
think that the Dunwoody Institute is founded on a philo- 
sophy which is poles asunder from Mr. Wirt's plan. The 
Gary system is firmly opposed to premature specialization 
in vocational work. The Gary sj^stem aims not to force 
a boy into a specific trade but to keep him out of it until 
lie has a sufficiently general experience to make a wise 
selection. I have a fear that Dunwoody Institute has a 
tendency to push the youngster into a specific trade. I'm 
not in the least disparaging the institute, you understand. 
I appreciate what a wonderful educational laboratory it 
is. But I'm merely expressing a feeling of disquietude 
concerning what I conceive to be its underlying philoso- 
phy." 

Miss Ueland has an unusual power of vitalizing an 
abstract topic through the sheer infectiousness of her own 
vitality. She seems able to inject into sociology all the 
vividness and high coloring of a choice episode of scan- 
dal. And it is interesting to observe that her one trait, 
more pronounced than her confessed feminism, is her ir- 



38 THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

repressible feminity. Those two nouns which the popu- 
lar imagination has painted as antitheses she has been 
fortunate enough to convert into synonyms. 



(CHAPTER VI. 

Economy Sought by the Gary Plan. 

The outstanding tenet of the Gary philosophy might 
be defined as the contention that an enlargement in the 
use of the school may effect an abridgment in the size of 
the bill. An addition in the equipment may be forced to 
serve as a subtraction from the sum total of the cost. A 
widening of the education offered the child may produce 
a shrinkage in the payment required of the state. An 
increase in the program of instruction may make pos- 
sible a decrease in the charge of running the plant. An 
enrichment in the development of the pupil may be ac- 
companied by a retrenchment in the price of operation 
while an extension of the privilege of learning may bring 
about a reduction in the expenditure involved. This is 
the audacious proposition which William A. Wirt now 
is engaged in demonstrating to a startled world. 

It must be consistently borne in mind that the Gary 
plan is a system of education and not a scheme of econo- 
my. What Mr. Wirt saves for the state he desires to give 
back to the child. The position he takes towards the 
public is not "I will cut in two the expense of educating 
your child," but rather, ''I will give your child a doubly 
good education without raising the expense." He feels 
that the child rather than the taxpayer should profit by 
the economics which he has introduced. 

But no reason exists why the taxpayer should not 
pocket the savings himself if he wishes to be niggardly 



THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 39 

with the child. Economics invented for the benefit of 
the child could readily be exploited for the benefit of 
the taxpayer. 

The person that derives the immediate profit from the 
Gary system unmistakably is the pupil. He is out of the 
classroom half the time in order that the state may per- 
mit him a special and extra education which the class- 
room cannot give. And because he is out of the class- 
room half the time the state is enabled to put his class- 
room to double use and thus to double the capacity of 
the building. It is an advantage to the pupil to be out 
of the classroom half the time and an advantage to the 
state. 

Saving- Is Effected. 

While he is out of the classroom he is enabled to get 
such recreational and vocational work as the classroom 
never could offer and the state, through the double use 
of classroom thus achieved is enabled to effect a huge sav- 
ing such as it normally never could hope to obtain. There- 
fore, in staying out of the classroom half the time, the 
pupil is doing himself a great favor and the state a great 
favor. His own gain is educational. The state's gain is 
financial. "What to him is an expansion of development 
is to the state a curtailment of expense. What to him is 
a handsome supplement to his program is to the state a 
liberal reduction in the cost. 

The system of duplicating classes in a single building 
absolves the state from the obligation to duplicate the 
building in operation after the classes have doubled. The 
money which under ordinary circumstances would be 
spent upon the erection of a second building is seized 
by Mr. Wirt and diverted to the equipment of magnificent 
playgrounds and workshops about the first building. 



40 THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

Twice the number of pupils in a given building thus get 
double the number of facilities they would get if the total 
group was halved and separate buildings erected for 
each division. 

School Invades Home. 

What strikes me as the most revolutionary phase of 
Garyism is the bold invasion of the home by the school. 
AVork, play, and study may be summed up as the trinity 
embracing the activities of the child. Work and play in 
the older generation were supervised by the home while 
study was supervised by the school. Gross inequalities 
existed in the amount of work and play required of the 
child by the home. One home might give its child an 
excess of play and an insufficiency of work. The next 
home might give its child an excess of wor,k and an in- 
sufficiency of play. And with the concentration of our 
l)opulation in urban centers it becomes practically im- 
possible for the majority of homes to make any kind of 
adequate provision either for the child's play or his work. 
An element of grave social danger has loomed up in the 
inability of society to give to its juvenile members the 
development which they imperiously need. The preda- 
tory streets thus are furnished with their opportunity to 
prey upon the young. The increasing efficiency to be 
noted in the home's supervision of the child necessitated 
by the growth of large cities has assumed the aspects of 
a national menace. 

Takes Over Work and Play. 

Mr. Wirt had the clear-sightedness to observe this con- 
dition and the foresightedness to prepare for it. He be- 
lieves that the school must be adapted and readapted to 
accomplish the work which the home is failing to do. 



THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 41 

Whereas, formerly the school supervised but one of the 
child 's three activities, study, he has taken over the other 
two, work and play, as well. Vocational work and rec- 
reational work have supplemented the academic work 
which in an earlier day constituted its exclusive province. 
He has made the school as universal as the universe of the 
child and as varied in its teachings as the entire range of 
liis interests. A wonderful opportunity to work, a won- 
derful opportunity to play, and a wonderful opportunity 
to study are presented in the new and enlarged program 
which Mr. Wirt has prepared for the school. 

The amazing phase of Mr. Wirt's activities lies in his 
apparent success in so reorganizing the school as to make 
these heavy additions to his program the basis of no ad- 
ditional expense in operation. This he has been able 
to do by his system of duplicate, or rotating, classes al- 
ready explained and by a lengthening of his school day. 

I desired to ascertain the relative expense of the 
Gary school system and that of Minneapolis. But the 
little investigation I undertook showed the utter imprac- 
ticability of such a venture for the present. Different 
habits of auditing seem to have left the data of the Gary 
schools full where the data of the Minneapolis schools is 
fragmentary and Gary data fragmentary where the Min- 
neapolis data is full. Neither Mr. Swartz, the assistant 
superintendent of the Gary schools, nor Mr. Bell, the 
auditor of the schools, could make an authoritative com- 
parison of the Gary schools with the Minneapolis schools 
until he had had complete access to the Minneapolis 
statistics. Both Mr. Swartz and Mr. Bell were convinc- 
ed that a disinterested comparison of the school expendi- 
tures, based upon the entire statistics of both schools, 
would result unfavorably for Minneapolis. 

Mr. Spaulding of Minneapolis, on the other hand, is 



42 THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

convinced such a disinterested comparison would result 
unfavorably for Gary. In view of the general meagerness 
of the data, I have not given the space to the compara- 
tive estimates which have been given me and which, if 
authoritative, would be important. 



An Added Chapter. 



The following article on the ''Gary system" in its 
home city, by Elsa Ueland, which appeared in a re- 
cent issue of The New York Evening Post is of inter- 
est in Minneapolis not only because of the discussion 
here as to the advisability of adopting the system, 
but beccmse the writer. Miss Ueland, a teacher in the 
Gary schools, is a daughter of Judge and Mrs. An- 
dreas Ueland of Minneapolis. 

Gary, Ind., Oct. — I wish New York could come to Gary 
for a week or two. The proof of the pudding is in the 
eating; and if New York parents could only duplicate 
my experiences, as a person at least in loco parentis to 
one small Gary child, they would be ready to endorse the 
Gary recipe. 

Gary parents must give extra time to darning stock- 
ings. That is a penalty of modern education admitted 
at the start. Sometimes it is the left knee that regularly 
comes home exposed, sometimes it is the right, depending 
on the latest fashion for sliding down the aparatus when 
the playground teacher isn't looking. But, the stocking 
liability admitted, all other peculiarities of the Gary 
schools are assets to the parents. 

Our boy is nine years old, no prodigy, ambitious only 
to wear ''scout" shoes and have a watch pocket in his 
"pants," and have kite, cap pistol, or go-cycle, each in 
the proper season. 

*'0h, please," he says to me in the morning, coming 



THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 43 

very close, "could I stay at school touiglit till 5 o'clock? 
We're going to have a soccer game." 

A r.emembrance of knickerbockers sagging ankle long 
and a little blackened nose makes me hesitate; but I 
tell him, "Yes," because I know that a small flat is no 
place for his young energy during waking hours. He 
hurries off to be at the gate at 8 o'clock, when the play- 
ground opens; and as I am a "working mother," I do 
not see him again till five. 

This is his program as a member of the 3-A class : 

Classes Give Programs. 

8:15 — 9:15, Auditorium — Largely an hour of singing, 
marching, and story telling, with programs given by the 
classes, which represent their regular work. For ex- 
ample, the German class may give a German program, or 
a geography class explain some lantern slides, or a his- 
tory class present a little history, play, or an upper Eng- 
lish class tell the little children stories, or a boy from the 
forge class may pound out a chisel with his forge and 
anvil on the stage. Sometimes there is an outside speak- 
er ; sometimes a moving picture. It is a thrilling day when 
Carl is on the program. Then, if he had a mother with 
more leisure, she would go to hear him do his part. 

9:15-10:15 — Play. Most of this hour is given to free 
play, including ice-skating and snow-balling in the win- 
ter, though games are suggested and guided by the play- 
ground teacher. Once a week the 3-A class goes to the 
Central library, two blocks away, and twi(?e a week Carl 
goes to "religious,"' as he calls it— a church school in the 
church across the street. 

10:15-11:15 — Application. When the next bell rings 
the 3-A class follows their captain to an informal class 
room where they assemble for language and number 



44 THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

games, measuring problems which sometimes take the 
class outdoors, perhaps "playing store," It is an in- 
formal hour given for the "application" of the formal 
work under the direction of an academic teacher. 

11:15-12:15 — Spelling, writing, arithmetic. A formal 
study and recitation period in a regular classroom. 

12 :15-1 :15 — Lunch. Cooked and served by the girls 
of the cooking classes in the lunch room of the school. 
A lunch of soup, baked potato, custard, and a muffin, for 
example, costs our boy 11 cents. He chooses it himself and 
pays the sixth grade girl who is cashier. 

1 :15-2 :15 — Play. Another hour of organized play out- 
doors. In stormy weather the children gather in the gym- 
nasium. 

2:15-3:15 (first three months) — Drawing. 

(Second three months) — Shop work. 

(Third three months) — Nature Study and Garden 
Work, 

3:15-4:15 — Reading, history and. geology. Another 
formal study and recitation period, 

4 :15-5 :00 — Playgrounds and shops open to volunteers 

Saturday, all day. Classrooms, playgrounds, shops, 
open to volunteers. 

How Parents Come Into It. 

But parents come into closer contact with the school 
-than through the printed program. Our carving knives 
are taken there to be sharpened, our chairs to be re-can- 
ed; most of our toys — swords, go-cycles, even "aero- 
planes" — are made, each by its future owner, right in the 
school. The problem of pets is greatly simplified. A 
poor starved kitten, which our tiny apartment could not 
welcome, was given a home together with the rabbits, 
guinea pigs, squirrels, turtles, and white mice of the na- 



THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 45 

ture study class room, aud Carl was made the monitor of 
the kitten, his kitten, as well as of the gold fish. The 
presence of the kitten hastened a tragedy a few days later 
when the gold fish seemed to have disappeared and the 
only clue was the open door, of the owl's cage. We are 
brought to the school, bodily, to buy vegetables raised by 
the children. We go there for entertainment. "Alice in 
Wonderland," given by the children, is last year's most 
brilliant memory. We go there for lectures, for music, 
for moving pictures. The school is not only the social 
center, it is almost the only center of our, lives. 

Criticism Answered. 

"But, madam," I hear some careful school man ask, 
"what about discipline and drill? You are telling us of 
toys and pets and moving pictures, but not of your boy's 
training to meet the real emergencies of life." 

Eighteen months ago our boy was constantly kept af- 
ter school in New York city because he couldn't learn to 
sit quietly in his seat. Here he has three hours of sitting 
quiet ; a listening period in the auditorium and two study 
and recitation periods in the formal class room. But he 
is rested by the play between these periods and sitting 
quiet is no longer a physical impossibility. He also has a 
fourth hour of "application" with an academic teacher, 
and a fifth hour of drawing, nature study, or shop work ; 
so he gets as many minutes of academic work as he would 
in any five-hour school. The Saturday work, the play, 
the library hour, and the church school are all additional. 

Discipline for Real Life. 

And the discipline of his daily program is, I am satis- 
fied, the discipline which trains for the actual emergen- 
cies of life. Getting to the right place at the right time 



46 THE GARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

all through the day ; choosing a wholesome lunch ; playing 
"team work" in a baseball or a soccer game; learning 
that a library book kept overlong means a fine which 
must be earned; being responsible for animals and plants 
whose very life means regular care; listening courteously 
to the program of a fellow class, and independently com- 
pleting a bit of creative work even though the creation 
is but a toy — this is surely the discipline which gives 
permanent and intelligent self-control. 

Life in the Gary schools gives more than discipline. 
It has given our boy an interesting respect for girls, for 
one thing, because girls handle tools in the shop and play 
baseball as cleverly as the boys. And it has added to his 
fine nine-year-old eagerness about everything he sees and 
does. No walk in the woods is complete without bring- 
ing back cricket, coccoon or cactus to the nature study 
teacher. Sewing is just as interesting as sawing. And 
books, unspoiled by over-emphasis, are as entrancing as 
the creatures of the woods. 

Like New Yorkers. 

No wonder we feel grateful to the schools. Some par- 
ents are so situated that they can give rich opportunities 
to their children without help. But we are like most par- 
ents in New York. We have no private playground, no 
garden or chicken house or barn, no place for our boy 
to have his tools, no pets, and no time even to give him 
what we should. And yet when he has gone to bed at 
7 o'clock, worn out by the eager, hard activities of the 
long day, we know that, thanks to the Gary schools, he 
has had all these experiences, and the day has been well 
spent, 

ELSA UELAND. 




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